Founder's Day Debate: Let Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Enjoy His Glory

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has successfully rekindled the debate over whether or not Ghana has a Founding Father or Founding Fathers. 

In an epic style, the party organised a lecture- delivered by the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Michael Aaron Ocquaye, under the topic “4^th August; Ghana’s Day of Destiny”-to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). The crème de la crème of the NPP were in attendance, including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and former president John Agyekum Kufuor.

There have been suggestions that the topic is irrelevant at this point in time, where Ghana has much more important issues to tackle than a debate over Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s status as the Founding Father of Ghana. But it is an important topic we ought to discuss, because the last thing we wanna lose is our genuine history, when everything else in the nation seems to be in disarray.

It goes without saying that the lecture is part of a well-designed NPP master plan to reduce (or perhaps entirely wipe out) the illustrious role Nkrumah played in Ghana’s independence struggles. In recent memory, President Akufo-Addo laid down the marker when he conveniently ignored Nkrumah in the 60^th anniversary Independence Day celebration speech delivered by the first gentleman of the land. 

The NPP’s utmost desire is to see the image of Nkrumah sacrificed at the expense of the Danquah-Busia tradition and her affiliates.

Amidst all this grand ploy to strip Nkrumah of his title, it has become clearly evident that the gigantic image of the Osagyefo still haunts the NPP. The NPP still doesn’t want to accept how a poor boy from Nkroful achieved what their over pampered intellectuals couldn’t achieve, even so, when this unassuming character chalked this achievement within an unprecedented period of time. 

The hatred felt by the then leaders of the UGCC, which has evolved into current day NPP is the same level of rage that the current cohort of NPP functionaries feel towards Nkrumah. As such, they are hell bent on destroying the man’s legacy.

There is the lame view that the movement for independence was initiated by the so called UGCC founding members. My simple question is, and so what? Again, fingers are pointed towards the fact that Nkrumah’s plane ticket to return from England to Ghana to serve in the capacity as secretary of UGCC was funded by the UGCC. Yet again, l ask the question, and so what? 

How many times have we not seen so many initiatives started by several persons, yet they fail to achieve their set targets? Since when is it that if you pay your child’s lorry fare to the university, then it means the degree to be awarded should be in your name? What makes the case of UGCC and its founders different? 

Yes, they started a political movement, yet it was the ingenuity of Nkrumah that won us independence. Infact, l dare so that the founders of UGCC did not believe in their capability to attain freedom for the then Gold Coast, for which reason they were hiding behind their “self government within the shortest possible time” mantra.

Nkrumah, full of vision came into the picture, and did what everyone thought was impossible. He took the game to a whole new level. What is the guarantee that UGCC would have won us independence? Even if they did, it would surely not have been the same 6^th March, 1957 Ghana Independence as we have come to know it. So why are we making noise about a possibility, whist we have a result to celebrate?

There are many other ways for individual Ghanaians to climb high, and attain a status more befitting than that of Nkrumah, in the annals of Ghana’s political history. If and when that happens, that person’s glory will be based on merits, not mere propaganda and brain washing. Until then, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah remains Ghana’s most darling boy, and for that matter, the Founder of the nation. 

10 Beneficial Things Bank of Ghana's $504,000 Golden Watch Money Could Have Been Used For

The airwaves across the nation are inundated with opinions of all and sundry on the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) decision to blow $504,000 on gold watches for 72 employees as end of year benefits. 

Some people approach the subject from a utilitarian point angle, whilst others look at it from the point of legality of the methodology used in the procurement process. I side with the former group of persons, and in this post, I proffer ten very beneficial ways the fund from the central bank’s 2016 budget could have been used for. The $504,000 in question converts into GHC2,005,290 (two million and five thousand, two-hundred and ninety Ghana cedis), that is over 20billion old cedis for wrist wears.

1. Solar powered mechanised boreholes in 22 communities: the cost of constructing a solar powered mechanised borehole is GHC91,000, with the capacity to irrigate an entire community. Looking at the abundant sun energy Ghana is blessed with and the water problems being faced in a good number of regions in the nation, the solar powered water machines would certainly be of good use to Ghanaians. 
2. 6-unit classroom blocks in 20 communities: schools under trees is one of the major problems faced by the Ghana education system, and with the cost of building a 6-unit classroom block currently pegged at GHC100,000 the BoG money would have tackled the problem to a substantial degree
3. Coat 3.5km road: it roughly costs GHC600,000 to cover a 1km road with primary coater. An investment into this sector is a long term one, and addresses one of the primary problems in Ghana’s infrastructure to an extent.
4. Nationwide cholera education programme: cholera has become a perennial endemic in Ghana: one of the major ways to solve a problem of this nature is through public education. And the method has particularly been proven effective in the case of cholera. All the health directorates need is 20bn old cedis to hit the road.
5. 5 modern 24-bedroom hostel facilities: accommodation is a key challenge in our country. Constructing a 24-bedroom hostel facility for either workers or students goes for GHC500,000. 2m Ghana cedis would get us 5 of those buildings.
6. Feed Osu Children’s Home for over 4 and half years: the nation’s historic orphanage has always had resource constraints. At a feeding rate of GHC2 (which is very excellent by Ghanaian standards) per meal, the less than 200 inmates of the facility will enjoy good nourishment, 3 times a day for 4 year and 8 months with the BoG watch money
7. Sponsor 4 medical doctors to study cardiology abroad: infections of the heart, just like many other non communicable diseases are on the rise in the country. The BoG cash would have ensured that the nation is equipped with four more experts in the matters of the heart, trained in some of the world’s best institutions.
8. 170 fish ponds for farming: this particular initiative would address two main issues: food insecurity and youth unemployment. A completed and well stocked 150 * 100ft earthen pond would amount to GHC12,000-which implies 20bn old cedis would have constructed 170pcs of ponds- which means the BoG watches have denied us some good source of constant protein as well as a decent number of employment opportunities.
9. Purchase over two-hundred thousand waste containers: good sanitation is a bane in the country, with indiscriminate disposal of waste a chief culprit. GHC2m is just enough to procure over two hundred thousand pcs of medium plastic rubbish containers to be distributed in all state owned primary schools across the nation.
10. Renew NHIS registration for all nurse and teacher trainees: the BoG money is more than enough to renew the National Health Insurance Scheme registration for all students of Nuses/Midwifery’ Training Schools and Teachers’ Training Colleges across the length and breadth of the nation.